


Deceiving, degrading, deflating

by livinginadaydream (orphan_account)



Category: JONAS
Genre: Angst, Humor, Incest, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-02
Updated: 2010-07-02
Packaged: 2017-11-11 03:05:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/livinginadaydream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick scares Kevin and suffers the consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deceiving, degrading, deflating

"Nick..." Kevin's voice was low in a whisper but urgent as he reached down and shook at his younger brothers' shoulder. At first Nick didn't move at all, except for the jerky movements Kevin had been forcing, but after a louder, closer whisper of, "Nick," in his ear, he popped one eye open, and then the other, looking up and around him until his blurry eyes settled on the face of his oldest brother.   
  
Huffing out a breath, Nick closed his eyes and forced himself to stay calm. " _What_ , Kevin?" he asked as his eyes opened again while his hand reached up and pried Kevins' hand from his shoulder. It was mostly dark but Joes' nightlight always cast enough light for them to be able to see shapes, outlines, shadows.   
  
Scrambling, Kevin angled himself so that he could face Nick not-upside down. "I heard -" he started, forgetting his quiet voice, until Nick hushed him quiet, sitting up a little to glance back at Joe to make sure he was still asleep. "I heard a noise," Kevin repeated, quieter this time.  Rolling his eyes, Nick waved his oldest brother off and feel back into his mattress. " _Nick_ .  _Please_ ..."   
  
"Go back to bed!" Nick whisper-yelled, shutting his eyes even tighter. Maybe if he wished hard enough, Kevin would disappear. Deceiving rustling caused for a startled Nick when he felt a sudden weight at his side. Sitting up again, and scooting to the side, Nick's eyes opened and when he realized instantly what the weight was, he glared, forehead getting smaller as his eyebrows furrowed. " _What_  are you doing?"   
  
Scowling childishly, Kevin sat up on his elbow. "Well if you won't go check on the noise, I'm sleeping in  _your_  bed. That way when whatever's downstairs comes up here, he'll eat you first."   
  
Frustrated but ever-curious about the way Kevin's brain worked, Nick slumped his shoulders and looked up hopelessly as he asked, "How do you know he'd eat me first? Hmm? I heard monsters  _prefer children_ ."   
  
"I resent that!" Kevin said, sitting up more to get a better angle from which to glare at Nick.   
  
Quirking an eyebrow, Nick responded dully, "You're supposed to."  After getting the satisfaction of witnessing Kevin pout out his lower lip, Nick shoved at the elbow that was holding his brother up. "Now get out of my bed."   
  
"Wait. Nick." Nick sighed and let Kevin continue with whatever stupid argument he was going to make. "Say the monster does prefer to eat pleasant, sweet people such as myself over people like you," Kevin said innocently enough, "Well, it'd be safer for  _you_ , if I slept here."   
  
Thinking he'd won his case, Kevin settled back down as Nick shifted around in the bed, but then Nick kicked him in the side and he realized his younger brother had risen. "I hate you. So much. Where did you hear the 'sound'?" Blinking, Kevin got up too, following after Nick when he stepped up the level from his bed.   
  
Pushing up against Nick's back, Kevin sheilded himself as he walked them over to the fire escape and peered down over his little brothers' shoulder. "Um, I'm not exactly sure  _where_ , but it was," Kevin paused to gulp, "Down  _there_ ," he whispered fiercely.   
  
"I don't think you're this stupid, but I've been wrong before..." Nick mumbled mostly to himself before asking, annoyed, "You do remember we have parents and a little brother who live with us too, right? Because sometimes  _people_  wake up in the middle of the night and make noise that wakes up  _other_ ,  _innocent_  people up?" Kevin was quiet, obviously thinking it over, and Nick gripped the metal of the fire pole they were standing next to and let his head fall to it, letting it send an ache through his nerves.   
  
"Well..." Kevin started, finally. Nick turned his head instinctively and realized that Kevin was a lot closer to him than he was entirely comfortable with and shrugged some space between them. "What if it  _isn't_ ?" Sighing in resignation, Nick moved forward, wrapping one leg around the pole, ready to slide down and make sure everything was safe in the Lucas residence before he felt a hand grip his shoulder tight. "Nick," Kevin said severely, "Don't - die."   
  
Shaking his head, bemused, Nick offered his most subtly sarcastic, "Thank you, Kevin." It earned him a large grin from his older brother and he couldn't help but smile a little to himself. "So. I'm gonna go down now," he said a few seconds later, and looked back at the hand still on his shoulder. Kevin followed his gaze and snapped his hand away, laughing sheepishly. "Wait. Right. There. Okay?" Kevin agreed immediately, nodding his head, and then Nick flashed a smile before pulling his other leg to the bar and let himself slide down to the second floor.   
  
It was a lot darker, lacking Joe's nightlight, but mom usually left the back lights on in the kitchen, so Nick let it guide him to a light switch. He pressed his thumb to the button lightly, turning the lights on to a dim setting, enough where he could see, but not enough to flood more space than the kitchen. Giving a half-hearted glance around, Nick moved the pad of his thumb lower to the off button when he heard a timid 'Nick...' come from upstairs and he got an idea.   
  
Tossing a look up at the voice and then over to the staircase, Nick smirked. "Kev," Nick whispered upward when he found himself under the right pole. "I think I saw something." He tried to make his voice sound tight, a little afraid as he spoke, all the while spinning his ring easily around his finger. "I'm gonna check it out. Stay there, and you just - keep paying attention to what's happening down here in case I need help... Kay?" Kevin nodded and then realized Nick might not see, and spoke his agreement out loud, though he was pretty sure the only help he'd lend would be to get Joe. Quietly Nick made his way up the stairs, stepping light until he stepped onto the hardwood of their bedroom floor.   
  
Craning his neck, he made certain Joe was still asleep, and when he saw his brother wrapped in his blanket, one leg sticking out, he smiled soft and amused, before it slipped to a smirk and he turned to look at Kevin. With his back to Nick, Kevin was clueless as his little brother crept up behind him until the second Nicks' hands wrapped simultaneously around his eyes and mouth, holding in his scream as Nick pulled him back semi-rough. When Kevins' thrashing seemed to calm more out of energy loss, Nick let his head fall to the back of Kevins' shoulder while he laughed and let his hands slip away so that his arms lay limp over his brothers' shoulders.   
  
Kevin gasped as he turned around, blinking furiously until he saw for certain that it was Nick. "Oh!" he said a little breathlessly, and unexpectedly, his arms wrapped tight around Nick's waist and he lifted his little brother up and closer to him, smushing his face into Nicks' chest.   
  
Confused, Nick patted Kevin's shoulder, fighting away the stupid smile that was threatening to break the look on his face. "What...? Kevin, it's okay. I'm - You know I'm fine right?" Kevin shook his head a little and Nick quirked an eyebrow but felt his confusion slide away. "Kev... Put me down.  _Now_ ."   
  
Reluctantly, slowly, Kevin let Nick slide down until his feet were firmly on the ground. "You sure got 'im! What'd you do Nick? Give him the ol' one, two!?" Kevin asked excitedly, giving a few punches to the air. Nick shook his head and rolled his eyes before shrugging at Kevins' awed look and he nodded. Kevin squeezed him tight, locking his arms to his side as Nick let out a surprised, somewhat suffocated grunt. "You. Are so  _awesome_ ." Laughing hesitantly, Nick felt himself go less rigid in Kevins' arms.    
  
"Yeah - well." Finally, he sighed, letting the guilt get to him. "You can sleep in my bed with me. Just in case I didn't - um - get him good enough..." He winced as he heard himself offer it, but couldn't fight the smile when Kevin hugged him impossibly tighter before he let go and walked to Nick's bed and climbed down to the mattress gingerly, Nick well aware that Kevin wasn't just jumping in because he was  _letting_ him get close.   
  
"Thanks Nick..." Kevin mumbled into his shoulder when they had settled under the blankets. Nick just sighed again in response, giving one last glance back at Joe and whispered something to himself about _lucky_  and  _heavy sleeper_ . And maybe something about  _absolutely thank God_ , when he felt his own arm curl up over Kevin's elbow that rested between his ribcage, followed by a slightly self-startled  _what the hell...  
  
-  
  
_ Joe was looking down at him when he woke up, blinking his eyes. Feeling around him a little, he could tell Kevin wasn't in his bed anymore. "He went to the bathroom," Joe told him, sounding bored before he rolled his eyes and dropped down so that his legs were dangling into Nicks' bed-pit as he sat. "He got scared?" Nick nodded wrinkling his nose a little as he sat up and pulled the covers around him, feeling like he'd done something horribly wrong.   
  
After a moment of silence, Nick unblinkingly giving Joe his attention, to show he wouldn't back down because he  _hadn't_  done anything (even if he felt like it and it showed in the strained tendons of his hands where they clasped each other in his lap), Joe laughed. "What...? You actually let him in your bed? What did -" Realization seemed to dawn on him, and he curled over onto his side, laughing, eyes creased as he asked, "What did you do to him, Guilty? Did you kill his last goldfish, Nick?"   
  
Throwing his covers off of his lap and standing up, Nick moved his legs around a little until his pajama pants fell into a more comfortable position on his hips and legs, watched as they went instead of looking at his stupid brother. "No. I just - Well, I scared him pretty bad last night. I'm pretty sure he thought someone was going to murder him. So... I felt bad," he ended, and then shrugged, stepping out and over Joe who was still laying the floor, smiling with wet eyes. "You don't tell  _any_ one about this, either," Nick told him, giving him a sharp glance back before he went to get ready for school.   
  
Hurrying when he realized Nick wasn't coming back, Joe met his brothers and parents downstairs for breakfast. Instead of sitting by Kevin where he sat a lot of the time, Joe moved to the chair closer to Nick and gave him a smirky-smile. Ignoring him, Nick poured them both a bowl of cereal and added milk. When Nick got around to putting sugar over Joe's cereal, he caught his wrist and Nick looked up at him. "Salt?"   
  
"I didn't have time to  _not_  be predictable..." Joe sighed and then let his smirk fall off of his face, let go of Nick's wrist and watched as salt was poured over his cornflakes. A little amused, and pleased, Nick watched Joe pull his bowl into his chest and squeezed his upper arm as he trooped through his first few bites.   
  
"You probably could have gotten another bowl," Nick told him later, when they were walking into school.   
  
Flipping his hair as he looked over to his little brother, Joe shrugged. "It was actually pretty good, minus all the salt. Besides, we both know why you did that. It's like a token now. I just have to cash it in..."   
  
"I wanted to get it over with. I don't actually  _like_  pay-back as a ritual." Joe shrugged again and threw an arm over Nick's shoulder as he pulled him up to their lockers. Kevin appeared a few minutes later and Nick ignored him when he hugged Nick from behind, arms wrapped around his chest.   
  
Coughing, Joe smirked again. "I'll just let you two be alone..."   
  
"Joseph." He kept walking. "Kevin, get  _off_  of me. Joe!" Joe didn't see as Nick shrugged Kevin off of him, but he felt hands grab his shoulders and he stopped walking just long enough for Nick to settle in at his side, giving him a look that simply said, 'Nicholas?'. "That... Seriously? Don't do that... It's not like we're - Kevin is just. You are  _so_  annoying."   
  
"And you are so easily flustered... Is that from Kevin?"   
  
Nick made a noise as if he was disgusted, which he mostly was, and then he tightened his hold on Joe. "Why are you being like this? I get the whole tease-your-little-brother thing, but this is ridiculous." Stopping again, Joe turned under Nicks' hold, he gave him another look, silent, that told Nick he wasn't being like anything... Which was a total lie, because he was, and Nick could  see  _that_  in his eyes too. "Is this about the time you had a bad dream and I wouldn't let you in my bed?" Nick asked suddenly, eyebrows knitted more closely together as he tugged his lower lip between his teeth.   
  
When Joe scoffed he had his answer. "Joe..." Nick said incredulously, "This is completely different! I actually scared Kevin. I'm sorry if I wasn't the one giving you nightmares, but... You're old enough to deal with your own bad dreams. If it meant that much to you though, all you had to do was be," Nick paused, looked around, and then whispered like it was a huge, classified-type secret, "Persistent. I would have let  _you_ ," he continued through clenched teeth, so no one could read his lips. Joe studied his face for a moment, somewhat disbelievingly, and then he smiled wide.   
  
It took only a second of deciding not to hug Nick, when Joe's face flickered back to its previous state of obvious jealousy. "Well. You still let Kevin."   
  
"Sorry... Jeez. I didn't know it - I didn't know  _anything_ . I won't anymore." He felt arms wrap around him again and saw Joe's eyebrows shoot up. " _Ever_ ," he swore, slamming his palm to his face. " _Kevin_ ! Get  _off_ !" When Kevin walked away pouting, Nick let his hand slide from his face and let his forehead fall heavily into Joes' shoulder, who was smirking. "Make it stop..."   
  
Joe sighed happily. "It's your own fault, Nicky..." He pat him on the back and then pulled him to his next class, and arm around the middle of Nicks' back.


End file.
